Jacqueline Hunter, 50, of Rockford Avenue, Hull, admitted stealing the money while working as an accounts assistant at an Evans Halshaw car dealership.

She also pleaded guilty to one count of fraud after "accidentally forgetting" to declare a previous conviction of false representation, forgery and theft in 2009. Evans Halshaw said that if they had known about her previous conviction, she would not have been hired.

Hunter claimed that because she hadn't been to prison for the crime and was granted a 12 months suspended sentence, she did not realise it counted as a conviction.

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Following an audit, the company learnt 32 transactions payable to the company had been sent to Hunter's accounts, since the company's account number and sort code had been changed to match a Natwest account the same as Hunter's.

Mr Welch said: "The defendant was confronted by managers on March 8, 2017 with these findings. She admitted she took it when she shouldn't have. She said at the time she had felt depressed, had taken an overdose and had been neglected and overlooked at work."

Jacqueline Hunter stole £30K from her employers (Image: Getty)

In March 2017, she attended a disciplinary hearing with the company where she was subsequently sacked. She then attended a voluntary interview with police where she admitted her crime but said she worked "very hard but did not receive any extra payments for this" despite receiving a bonus for £300 every three months.

Mr Welch said: "She felt resentment and transferred the money to her account and it just sat there."

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The court heard how Mrs Hunter later transferred the money back to the company a year before a court summons demanded her to.

Mr Welch said: "It had all been repaid before she went to Magistrates Court. The total taken over the course of two years would have worked out at £1,000 to £1,500 per month and the car dealership was selling around 400 cars per month during that time."

She was sentenced at Hull Crown Court

Mitigating, Cathering Kioko-Gilligan, told how Mrs Hunter had been unable to tell her husband of her crimes until the day before her sentencing. She said: "She didn't realise that a non-custodial outcome is also a conviction so was confused.

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"Her family say she is the backbone of it and the source of all of their strength. She knows she has brought it on herself."

Sentencing Mrs Hunter to a nine-month suspended sentence for theft, and a one-month suspended sentence to run alongside that for fraud, Recorder Hunter, said: "I can tell you now that if you had not repaid that money there would be no question but to send you to custody.

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"The repayment and the remorse you have shown means I will suspend the sentence.

"You reached the age of 50 with just one conviction and I do accept that there are people who believe not going to prison means they haven't got a conviction so I will accept the naivety that you thought you didn't have to declare yours."

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